Family Business Done Right: The Bear Iron Works Story
"Celebrating Small Family Businesses" Podcast
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Introduction
This is a summary of the Bear Iron Works interview from Celebrating Small Family Businesses, featuring Mike and Roggen Frick, a father-and-son team who grew Bear Iron Works from a small project into a remote-operating manufacturing business.
How Bear Iron Works started
- Mike began by making small rock screens and selling them through Craigslist.
- Roggen learned welding and fabrication, helped grow the idea, and pursued college.
- They briefly ran a larger operation while Roggen was in college, but scaling and logistics led them to pause and reassess.
- The opportunity to turn the side project into a full-time business grew when Mike proposed reviving the Grizzly Rock Screen venture; Roggen joined remotely, and they expanded the shop space as demand increased.
Building a remote-first business and roles
- They intentionally designed the business to operate remotely, with Roggen moving to the East Coast and managing marketing, software, and customer relations from afar.
- An operations manager with logistics expertise was hired to oversee production flow and shipping, transforming Bear Iron Works into a capable, almost “industrial Amazon” for their niche products.
- They hold weekly meetings with three core leaders (Mike, Roggen, and Roggen’s wife, who manages the books) to stay aligned on decisions and company culture.
Cash flow and growth lessons
- Early on, they faced a cash-flow crunch due to net-30 terms and limited capital.
- They shifted to an upfront payment model for manufacturing and introduced an e-commerce platform, balancing credit terms with upfront payments to sustain production.
- They now maintain inventory on popular items and offer payment terms only after credit approval, ensuring cash flow supports ongoing operations.
What’s next and final takeaways
- Future plans include expanding product lines beyond rock screens to include bedding boxes, washout tubs, tracking pads, and a new snow plow attachment, while increasing marketing efforts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
- They continue refining processes and company culture, aiming for steady growth and a smooth, scalable operation that maintains remote leadership and strong customer relationships.
- Word of wisdom: focus on solving problems first (avoid finger-pointing), maintain cash-flow discipline, and build trust with clear roles to support long-term growth.
Transcript
00:05John and Connie: Hi, and welcome to another episode of Celebrating Small Family Businesses where we feature passion in action. And today we are celebrating Mike and Roggen Frick of Bear Iron Works. Hi Mike. Hi Roggen. How are you? Mike Frick: Good. How are Roggen Frick: Doing.
00:22
John and Connie: Wonderful. Roggen Frick: Thanks for having us on. John and Connie: So you guys are father and son. Mike Frick: yes. John and Connie: I'd love to hear the story of how Bear Iron Works got started. Did it grow from another business you had, or is it.
00:35
Mike Frick: I'll let Roggen go here in a second, but I'll, I'll tell you my part. So I just started building some rock screens, small ones. The, the industry had a lot big ones, but we, no one was building any small ones, so I just had some iron and, and so I built a few, put 'em on Craigslist.
00:55
And then, uh, Roggen, he learned how to weld and fabricating them.
1:00
How Bear Iron Works first got started
01:02
Uh, I didn't do it as a business at the time, necessarily. Uh, just some extra income. And then when Roggen went to college, he can, he can take it from there. John and Connie: Did you have another business at the time or were you employed by a.
01:14
Mike Frick: yeah, I had a construction business, which Roggen worked with me through since he was like four years old. He was, he, he hung out John and Connie: I hope he got paid well. Mike Frick: he, Roggen Frick: Yeah, Mike Frick: hung out with me a lot.
01:28
Roggen Frick: that's, that's where I learned how to weld and operate equipment. Mike Frick: Yeah. He, he could run a backhoe. By the time he was, uh, three or four years old, he was running big excavators. Literally, he could do it. Dozers, dump trucks. John and Connie: cool. Mike Frick: Yep.
01:45
Roggen Frick: Yeah. then, so when I went to college, um, I have. My I race motocross is a hobby of mine and needed to have a place where I could store my, my dirt bike and work on it. And storage units aren't very fond of you working on stuff there.
2:00
Building grizzly rock screens during college
02:02
So, uh, I needed to get a shop and so Mike suggested that why don't you make some of these grizzlies and you can sell enough to pay for a shop so you can have a place to do that. So I got a shop and started making these grizzlies and I built a website and so I could advertise 'em online.
02:20
And then pretty soon I start getting quite a bit of demand for these rock screens, even though I wasn't marketing them very, uh, hard. And so I got a, classmate of mine. I recruited him. I had him running my saw and I was gonna teach him how to weld so he can help me
02:37
put it together and do all the welding. And within six months I had already moved into an even bigger shop with four Bays. Had a forklift, hired another part-time employee from the college and was teaching 'em how to weld and started putting these together.
02:51
it was getting to the point that it was a little bit too big handle going to school and running this business at the same time. 'cause I was doing the accounting. I was making the products. I was delivering the products. I was like kind of a one man show with those, my two part-time
03:06
employees picking up the slack. So we shut it down and I focused on schooling and I didn't have any plans of starting to back up. I was just gonna go and work in commercial construction and do construction management, which is what my degree was in.
03:19
And, about the time that I start, uh, getting my job and getting started, um, Mike was working at Kiwit, is a very large construction company, and he was working a lot of hours and he was kind of getting tired of that. And he calls me and he says, Hey.
03:36
Do you think that grizzly business is a, a good idea? And when I say grizzly, they're called grizzly rock screens, is what the product is called. I said, do you think that that grizzly business is a good idea? Do you think that that could become like a full-time job for us? I said, oh yeah.
03:48
'cause I was barely marketing it and it was getting enough demand to keep us busy. So I think if we put our efforts towards it, I think we can make it happen. Um, that's when Mike came on board and he started the business back up and I was just gonna be part-time support and.
4:00
Restarting the business during COVID
04:03
I'll let you kind of take it from there with growing the operations side of it. Mike Frick: Yeah, so I, I started it back again because he already had the website. I was, he just basically had to trigger the website backup and going again,
04:17
and, I was building, building them out of a small, I didn't have a shop at the time, so my mom and dad had a. Some acreage and they had a very small shop, very small, uh, 16 by 20, and I was building a few out of there. And then I was like, man, this thing's going again. It really is.
04:36
And, and this is COVID. We're we're talking August, Roggen Frick: August of 2020 Mike Frick: of Roggen Frick: is when we John and Connie: Wow. Roggen Frick: Yeah. Mike Frick: And uh, funny thing was, is one of my first customers was Kiwi,
04:51
My old employer, they didn't even know who I was when they called they needed one on the East coast, uh, in, we're in Grand Junction, Colorado. So anyways, they, um, so I had moved into a little bit bigger shop.
5:00
Early growth and first major customers
05:04
I Demand was there. I got an employee and we got into 2,400 square feet. And then next thing you know, uh, Roggen had spent a year at a fairly good sized construction company, building schools, re renovating schools, and. Um, his fiance says, Hey, we we're, we're going to South Carolina, basically,
05:24
like she's going to law school there. And so Roggen's like, Hey, do you think I can go full-time there? And I'm like, I think we can. I think you can do it. So, at that point in time, I think it was, I think the timing was about the same Roggen Frick: It was about that time. Yeah.
05:39
Mike Frick: a 9,000 square foot shop where we're at now. Roggen Frick: Mm-hmm. John and Connie: Wow. Mike Frick: And Roggen Frick: And then. Mike Frick: in my wife, uh, Darlene. She's, she's part owner, so we're all the third owner and she does the books and
05:54
John and Connie: got an an attorney in the family too. Roggen Frick: Uh, about to be, she just, just, uh, graduated this last weekend. Uh, John and Connie: Oh, congratulations. Roggen Frick: you. John and Connie: Now I can almost have your life back.
06:07
I'm imagining that was a long haul from stories I've heard. Roggen Frick: It, it was, and you know, it was, uh, I, even though it was gonna kind of disrupt my life and move across the country, I saw it as an opportunity to get out of the working, trying to climb the corporate
06:21
ladder and kind of do my own thing. and I just got here and I sat down. I said, okay, what can I do remotely? So I started focusing on marketing efforts. I started focusing on putting software into the business that can help us manage it efficiently as well as manage it remotely since.
06:40
I'm not there the whole time. Um, then just trying to focus on customer relations on the East Coast. Since I'm here, you know, I might as well go meet some of these customers out here. That way we can have a good outreach, uh, pretty much wherever we're at. And so I just started working on that.
06:56
I implemented a software called Fulcrum into the company, and what it does is it manages our, it keeps track of all of our inventory.
7:00
Running the business remotely
07:04
It has an AI scheduling tool in it that automatically schedules our jobs. I just started tying all the softwares together. I started launching an e-commerce front on the business so that we could actively sell the products, um, and like let the customers kind of customize
07:18
them a little bit on the website. Um, and then the other thing that we did at about this time is we hired an operations manager to actually manage the operations as well as, uh, we were looking for somebody who understood logistics.
07:35
'cause that was kind of a weak spot in our knowledge where, you know, trying to ship a big piece of equipment like this, 'cause these things weigh one, two, 3000 pounds. Trying to ship this all the way across the country at a price that
07:47
somebody wants to pay is difficult if you don't know what you're doing. Um, so our operations manager, he is, he has a background in that and right away he just started setting everything up and getting that so we can actually, you know. is like, kind of like a industrial Amazon in a way.
08:04
Even though we're a smaller company, you know, we're selling these online. You can just go add it to your cart, check out, and we're gonna get it made, put on a truck, and ship directly to wherever you need it. John and Connie: Dang. Yeah, that's definitely not UPS, uh, delivery material. That's,
08:20
Roggen Frick: No, it's not. John and Connie: that's a whole other, kinda kind of takes it to the next level. Whoa. Roggen Frick: Yeah. John and Connie: Wow. So many things here. So I I I mean, right away it sounds like you set the business or is this true?
08:36
It it, did you set it up right away to be both of you remote or, or did that evolve? I know Roggen and you were remote 'cause you were in the Carolinas, but what about you, Mike? Mike Frick: Yeah. Yeah. I mean that what had happened is just outta timing.
08:50
My, my wife had a. We will call it a situation. She was a nurse, she was managing at a hospital here in Grand Junction. And um, so we had the opportunity to go to Phoenix and um, I've always
9:00
Separating family and business roles
09:06
wanted to move to Arizona anyways. And about that time r had already said, Hey, I'm gonna, we're getting this thing done remotely. And it was going great, you know, I mean, it was pretty neat. Um, I'm like, well, I looks like I can do the same thing.
09:20
That's our, been our goal for the company to, to work for us instead of we working for the company. Maybe we, you know, you always hear that. And so that's kinda where we're still striving to get to. And, uh, it's, it's been working pretty good. I mean, it's not without problems here and there.
09:38
We, you're always, you know, you're always gonna have something come up. It's constant. But we're as, as a team, we're, we do, well, I mean, we. Um, I thinking I've said this to a lot of people, I've a movie about Henry Ford and his son and I, I, it hit, really hit home for me I didn't wanna, um,
09:59
restrict Roggen in anything that he did with the company because I know that he's got the talent to, you know, bring in new things that I've never heard of. Especially, you know, managing this company with this fulcrum. And letting them do that and, and all kinds of things.
10:17
So, we all get together once a week and we all have a meeting between my wife, Roggen, and myself. We, uh, have a meeting and we talk about whatever needs to be talked about make decisions. And we don't really hold anything against anybody. We just kind of work through it.
10:35
John and Connie: You have a business meeting. Mike Frick: Yeah, we do. We, we, we do, we, we've separated our, um, kind of our family. Um, I guess you might say, and we consider everybody a business manager. You know, just like if he was a real business and he wasn't related to him, and that's kind
10:53
John and Connie: How Mike Frick: we operate. John and Connie: smart. Wow. You guys, I mean, you're just nailing it one after another, after another. This is, um, but for, for what you know has worked. Yeah. And what works. You, you brought managing those roles, kinda changing hats and, and you know,
11:09
being able, like Roggen, right when we first started, you, you referred to your dad as Mike instead of dad. And that that's huge. Right there, you know, separating those roles in the business. You know, we're, we're three partners and then, you know, family is a separate thing.
11:22
Yes, they mix, but in each realm, one has to be dominant. And if you get them mixed up, boy you got troubles. Mike Frick: Yep. Roggen Frick: Yeah, I think we're pretty good at drawing a line of like, when it's time for business, you know, and we need to talk about business and get business done.
11:39
But then when it's time to be a family and go do have family affairs and do whatever it is we're doing, we say, Hey, we're not gonna talk about business. We're gonna focus on whatever we're doing, whether it's a vacation or having a holiday or whatever it might be.
11:53
you know, that's when from nine to five, he's Mike, but after that he's Dad. John and Connie: Yeah. Yeah. Roggen, growing up you said, I think you started working for the company,
12:00
Growing up in construction and learning in the field
12:04
uh, for your dad's construction company, maybe at five and, and learning to run equipment and all that stuff. What was that like growing up? Was, was there, uh, any sense of pressure or expectation around what the future would be of that? Or was it just, hey, you're here while you're here?
12:21
Roggen Frick: You know, uh, it was something that was like. I'm here, might as well learn. I mean, I wasn't forced to work or anything like that. I could hang out in the truck. I would, I'd have a dirt bike or a four wheeler and I'd go ride
12:33
around, 'cause the work that he did was mainly abandoned mine closures. And so we're working up in the mountains and stuff so I can go explore and, you know, check out the trees, do some sightseeing, but come back and he'd show
12:45
me how to run an excavator and how to do some work and let me swing some dirt. and then as I got older. You know, when I got into high school and got to driving age, it was a great summer job. You know, I could learn how to weld. I was even managing a little crew of like two or three people on
13:00
one project when I was like 17. Um, but I didn't have any pressure to go into construction. I actually was gonna go into movie making, is what I was originally gonna do. And, uh, he, he had no influence on my decision of what I wanted to do with my career. But.
13:18
I just started looking at everything and said, you know, there's a lot of people that wanna make movies and it's a very hard industry to get into, and I'm not sure if I necessarily like that industry as much, where I already know quite a bit about construction. I'm already in a pretty good for it.
13:32
I might as well just go double down, get the degree and see what I can do with it from there. John and Connie: Well done. Mike Frick: Well, and then my Roggen Frick: Thanks. Mike Frick: was a construction guy and so he had his own business
13:46
too before, you know, back I was born, just about, um, and so Roggen would go stay with my mom and dad. My dad always had a backhoe around. So Roggen always wanted to run the backhoe, and my dad would say, okay, just dig this trench here and come get me when you're done.
14:07
And he gets to play out there, on a chunk of land. He just dug trenches and backfilled them and learned how to run a backhoe. And then John and Connie: Oh, that's wonderful. Mike Frick: know, I don't forget that one, but, so I did a lot of oil field work too.
14:21
And he did, we did a big oil reclaim pit, a lot of mud and I think, I don't know how old he was then. How old was you then when you run that dozer? Roggen Frick: I was, think about 13, Mike Frick: 13. Roggen Frick: 14, something like that. Mike Frick: I mean, it was, it Roggen Frick: Um.
14:33
Mike Frick: major. I mean, he is in mud. The, the mud's about to come up into the cab and he could back out of it. He, he'll learn how to run that dozer without getting stuck. Roggen Frick: It set me up pretty well. I mean, when I entered the construction workforce, a lot of the problem that
14:47
we have in construction management is you get kids that, know, you either get somebody that has the field experience or somebody that's educated in it, but not a lot of people that are both. And that really set me apart as a candidate for hiring.
15:00
Standing out in the construction management world
15:01
Um, and it helped me excel. 'cause I had, I mean, I had like. Every employer wants, you know, 20 years of experience when you're right outta college. And so John and Connie: Yeah, Roggen Frick: kinda had that, you know, I already had like a lot of work experience under my belt.
15:14
I think it was a great opportunity, John and Connie: you were the unicorn they were looking for. That's right. Oh my gosh. Mike Frick: The funny, funny thing about that is, is he was working for a sizable company, uh, like I said, renovating schools straight outta
15:29
college, and he, he thought he was gonna be a career with these people. And it was a, it's a good company. And, um, when he was, had, you know, decided to move to South Carolina, he went to him and, you know, said, Hey man, I'm, I'm quitting.
15:47
And he was the project engineer there, kind of running the project and all. I then, then they invited him to a Christmas party. I think I got this story straight. Roggen Frick: Mm-hmm. Mike Frick: they offered to hire 'em back and buy the company.
16:00
Being offered buyouts—and saying no
16:01
We'll just buy your, we'll just buy Bear Ironworks. And they offered him a sizable amount of money. So Roggen Frick: Yeah. Mike Frick: been offered two different contractors to buy the company and then they wanted Bo, the other contractor wanted both of us to go work for 'em. Uh, so, but
16:22
John and Connie: That's a pretty big compliment right there. Roggen Frick: Mm-hmm. John and Connie: That's a self-confidence builder too. Right? Roggen Frick: Yeah. John and Connie: Hey, and also confirmation that you're in the right place at the right time. Mm-hmm.
16:34
If people wanna, if people want you, then you're good. Mike Frick: Yeah. John and Connie: Cool. Well, so one of the, sorry, go ahead. Mike Frick: Yeah. It doesn't go without problems. I mean, we have our problems and employee problems or logistical
16:49
problems of some sort, and gotta get together and talk about things and figure out what we need to do. Ain't all, you know, roses all the time. John and Connie: Oh, no, no. It never is. And you'd be bored if it was. Mike Frick: So Roggen Frick: All.
17:03
Mike Frick: we get to go and we have some major problems that we have to deal with and we're like, oh my gosh, we gotta deal with this. And then I think Rogan and I especially, and my my wife, we, we kind of sit back and go, no, you know, we're not working for somebody.
17:17
Remember those days when we was working for somebody and how, how we didn't want to be there? And even when we have those problems, we're like, you know what, I still want to be here. John and Connie: Yeah, because you can be the one to decide how to solve the problem too. Mm-hmm.
17:31
Roggen Frick: Right. John and Connie: speaking of that, challenges or problems, what is something that you've overcome together that that's noteworthy that maybe other small business owners could learn from? Mike Frick: Boy, I, no, there's been a few. If you wanna talk about any.
17:46
Roggen Frick: I mean, I think one of the bigger ones was, um, we hit a point, I think it was when I was coming on full-time. It may have been before when I was still working for the general contractor and I was still kind of part-time helping the business.
18:00
Cash flow challenges during rapid growth
18:00
But, we ran into an issue with cash flows and we were doing net 30 terms and we didn't necessarily have enough capital to kind of finance that. And so we hit this point where it was like, if we don't do something right now, we're not gonna be able to hit payroll or anything like that.
18:20
And so we all got together and just started brainstorming ideas, looking at where the finances are, looking at what money's coming in, thinking about, okay, how can we go about this? Um, something that we had done up to, uh, until like a couple months ago, is we hadn't taken on any debt.
18:37
At all to do the company. It was self-funded and it was self growing. but when you get into a situation like that where you gotta look, start looking at like the cost of capital and like how much does it take or how much does it cost to take out a loan? Is that worth it? You know?
18:51
'cause you're gonna be losing money and interest. And that's when we all got together. We looked at the problem. We said, okay, what if we start identifying certain customers that we can pay up front? Because some customers pay late.
19:03
We're, we're offering credit to every single person that wants to buy a product. And that's not the best way to go about it because some people aren't gonna pay back. they're definitely not gonna pay back on time, all of them. Um, and it's, it's hard to build the product, buy the steel, and do
19:17
all the work first and try to get it shipped to them and then wait 30 to 60 days for payment when it only takes a week to build the product. You know, it's taken longer to get payment about five times as long than to take the build it. It.
19:30
And so, um, that's when we decided that we would kind of start moving towards an e-commerce type system where we can sell the products and get the money up-front for the manufacturing, for the custom orders, um, and help the cash flow.
19:45
Because now that we have some of the money up front, at least from certain customers, we can keep that moving forward and keep production moving. And if production's moving, then it's gonna lower our lead times and everything like that.
19:57
So now we're to the point, because of how we've managed it, that we have a
20:00
Moving to e-commerce to stabilize cash flow
20:01
good cash flow through the business. We can offer terms to customers that go through our credit approval process. Um, so we can still, you know, serve those types of customers. But at the same time, uh, we're able to sell directly to some customers
20:16
and we also keep inventory the most popular products as well. That way we can ship 'em right away. John and Connie: Strong lesson. Yes. Cash flow is, uh, is so critical and a lot of businesses don't, just don't realize how important it is, and especially when you're growing, right?
20:35
Because you can grow into a cash flow crunch that you don't see coming. Roggen Frick: right? Yeah. And it's uh, that's something that they taught us in construction management. You know, 'cause you're looking at a construction project. You're looking at at least 60 days before you get paid, uh,
20:53
depending on how it all goes, right? But you gotta pay your payroll beforehand. You gotta pay your materials beforehand. And so how do you manage a multimillion dollar project while also keeping the cash in front of it and they teach you certain techniques there, um, on how to manage that.
21:10
And I think that's something that a lot of people kind of overlook, um, when they're running their own businesses or running construction. Is making sure that there's enough cash up front to keep flowing through that, because that's something that, you know, it doesn't matter how many sales
21:23
you have, if you can't afford to start the first one, then it's gonna tank, John and Connie: Right, right. Or if you can't deliver what you, what somebody's ordered because you hit a cashflow crunch and, and, and then they cancel the order and go somewhere else and that can spiral real fast
21:39
Roggen Frick: Yeah, yeah. And you John and Connie: and then it becomes a matter of reputation and all that out. Mike Frick: Yeah. Roggen Frick: Yeah, and you never wanna find yourself in a position where you're in a cashflow crunch and you might not be able to make a debt payment,
21:52
because if that happens, then know, well, the next time I go to try to get some credit from someone, they're probably not gonna give it to me. John and Connie: Right, right. Roggen Frick: actively managing that is important. John and Connie: Cool. What's another favorite question we ask?
22:10
My, my favorite question is, what have you learned about each other in this whole process because, you know, especially father, son, you know, you had, you know, a certain view sometimes of what you think or what you hope, and then you're in a business here.
22:28
So, and, and same thing back to you Roggen to to dad of, you know, he's dad and has a certain role. So what have you learned about working together? Mike Frick: I, I knew that Roggen did very well in school. I guess I encouraged him to let loose, so he rides motocross.
22:50
So he'll, I mean, he is, he is kind of this kid that I would describe to somebody that he's a nerd, but you'll never tell it by looking at him or talking to him John and Connie: Cool.
23:00
What Mike and Roggen have learned about each other
23:01
Mike Frick: because he's, he's, um, very intelligent. But, um, I, I guess I've seen that a lot more. You know, he, I know that he was good at what he did at when he come outta college. Then, you know, coming into the company I worked with a lot of young engineers
23:16
coming outta college and I worked for Kiwi and um, he uh, he was one of those guys that , the superstar type guy. And I'm not saying that's 'cause he's my son. He was at the company he was at before too. Um, it sounds a little bit braggy, but, um, but, but he's been a
23:36
huge help in growing this company. It's been pretty awesome. And Roggen Frick: and I think, uh. Mike Frick: takes on a lot of role and I don't have to worry about things a John and Connie: There you go. Mike Frick: maybe I do that a little bit too much sometimes and I'm like,
23:50
oh man, I gotta get more involved. But yeah. John and Connie: He's got it. Roggen, What about you? Roggen Frick: I think on, on my end, I think I learned, uh, how much, uh, my dad's willing to listen to me. Um, I John and Connie: Wow.
24:04
Roggen Frick: think lot of parents probably wouldn't be so willing to give the reins to their kid at this young of age and just say, Hey, let's roll with it. Let's see what your ideas are and where we can get there. And I think that's been very helpful.
24:22
Um, because even when it comes to things that, you know, Mike might not understand, especially when it comes to like online marketing and SEO and trying to get the website going, or automation with software, even if he doesn't fully
24:37
understand what it entails, he trusts that I do and he trusts that I'm going to get something put in place that's gonna work. um, I think without trust, something like this wouldn't be a feasible relationship. John and Connie: Okay. Mike Frick: Yep. John and Connie: So strong. Wow.
24:56
I, I, I'm very curious. You said you, set this up to, to work remotely kind of from the beginning and
25:00
Trust, leadership, and letting the next generation lead
25:03
you, you hired an operations manager that with a logistics experience. So, you know, I'm kind of calling these themes out so people hear it. You talked about roles really, you know, defining roles and, and also recognizing strengths and recognizing gaps and where, where you had a gap
25:18
, you filled it with somebody that that strengthens the whole company that way. And, and that's, that's just really like smart. Smart. And so when you're managing remotely, Roggen Frick: Mm-hmm. John and Connie: how often do you go back to the headquarters and check in. Mike Frick: I'm,
25:41
Roggen Frick: an owner there. Yeah. I'd say there's an owner there at least once a month out of one of us three. The way that it's set up and the way that it's operating. Our operations manager, he does an amazing job at making sure that everything's ran the way that we want.
25:56
We tell him to do something and say, Hey, we wanna see an improvement in safety, or We wanna see, an improvement in this operation, or We need to change something and do this. He asks the questions that he needs to know and then he runs with it.
26:09
And so we're fortunate in that sense of having a good guy in place. But it's important for us to be there to be able to incorporate our values in the business. And to make sure that we have a good culture there and that we reward and recognize the employees.
26:23
'cause we might not see, you know, the day-to-day operations, but we do see their work because even though I'm all the way out here on the East Coast, I visit customers and I see the products and I see how they're using them and I can see if something was good quality or not.
26:40
So I'm seeing the end result even though I'm not seeing them actually physically do it all the time. Mike Frick: And I think one thing too is I was in business since I was 24. I started my own construction and really the whole time I was in business, I,
26:57
I kind of failed really, because I was the only one making the decision.
27:00
Applying corporate principles in a family business
27:00
And it really bothered me that I couldn't get a construction company up and going, 'cause I, I, I knew how to build things. I know how to do the work and I did it well. So I went to work for a company, um, and they, they were sizable. There was like a billion dollar a year type company and they,
27:18
um, they didn't do things right. I, I, I'm really big about schedules. I think Roggen has learned that through construction management, the schedules is, is key. This company wouldn't hold to a schedule, they wouldn't plan and that they were making money. And I'm like, why?
27:36
Why are they doing so well? So it was a father son thing and the son had just taken over and it wasn't the kind of dynamic that we have. He, he was just kind of going for it. But they had a bunch of guys that were high up in the management that helped make the decisions.
27:51
And I thought to myself, you know, those guys are still making decisions. Those, they're, they're helping with the decisions. There's not one guy making the decisions. And I think when it's left up to one person making the decision, that is not a good plan.
28:07
It's, it's very tough to grow because you could go, I'm just gonna go spend this money over here, and there's not somebody else over here questioning you. Why? Why you're gonna do that? So the three of us, so like I said, my wife, she does the books and she's
28:22
got, she doesn't have the background in this, but she does have background in management and managing people and seeing things and, and we get together like that and we're able to make some really sound decisions doing thatt. I don't think the company would be as big as it is or as as
28:41
successful if we haven't done that. John and Connie: Smart. Nice. Nice. So you both, you've both brought, I think lessons from a corporate environment Mike Frick: Mm-hmm. John and Connie: bear in your, your business. I think when we, we had our pre-call, you said, uh, we're, we're running this as
29:00
a corporation, not as a family business Roggen Frick: Yeah, John and Connie: talk. Roggen Frick: there's a lot of different principles that they do, right, that are kind of important to, to learn. Like there's a reason corporations are successful, right? And the things that they do.
29:15
Not saying every corporation runs perfectly, but there's common principles that they all have, you know? And one of being is like the company culture. And developing that, that's something that small businesses don't focus on quite a bit.
29:30
They, every company has a company culture, but not every company knows what their culture is. And so if you put some effort into developing that and saying, Hey, you know, I want my employees to be happy, I want them to be relaxed and I want them to have time off. Right?
29:44
So that's one of the things we did is we do a four day, 10 hour a day work week. So every weekend that our guys get is a three day work week, and that's part of our company culture is we wanted to not overwork our employees. And so you have it, whether you know it or not.
29:58
So make sure you develop it into something good, because if people like
30:00
Company culture and the four-day work week
30:01
working for you, then you're going to, everything kind of falls in line, right? Like if people like being here, well then they're gonna take your safety message and your messages about safety and they're gonna be safer. And well, if they're safer, then they care about their job, their
30:13
quality's gonna fall in line, and then it just kinda all falls into place. When you're managing with the culture from the top down, and that's what all corporations do, and that's how you can hire anybody at a corporation any job
30:27
because everybody around them can assist them and Hey, this is how you do your job, or This is how we do things here. And that's how you can have a disconnect from the top all the way to the bottom in a corporation. And so we could try to do the same thing in our sense and pretend like
30:42
we're a business or big, like, I mean, we are a business, right? John and Connie: You are? Yeah. I. Roggen Frick: like, like a bigger business than John and Connie: Right. Roggen Frick: and give that presence and if you fake, fake it till you make it, right? Mike Frick: Yeah.
30:52
John and Connie: no, it's, I, I would say sort of, but I would also say it's principles. You know, there's principle strategies and tactics. That's one of my things. And, and when you work, when you, well, maybe principles at the bottom, 'cause
31:03
that's the foundation, and then strategies and tactics, tactics change all the time. But the principles are the guiding, you know, that's what guides, and, and you're talking about, you know, principles that, that build big companies.
31:13
So those principles should be sound throughout any size company, if you get down to the principal level. Mm-hmm. Roggen Frick: Mm-hmm. John and Connie: Um, you know, we, we can't hire, um, just when it's just the two of us, we can't hire a whole big staff and, you know, you're
31:26
this and you're that and you're that. So, you know, that's more of a strategy, but the principles of, of, you know, having defined roles and, and you know that everything that goes with that. Communication, communicate, clear communication. Yeah. I don't know about our culture.
31:41
We're gonna have to talk about our culture. I think might need adjusting as, as long as I'm in charge, it's okay. That's the culture. So what is next for Bear Iron Works? Roggen Frick: So the upcoming year, we're looking to grow our product lines.
32:00
What’s next for Bear Iron Works
32:04
So we serve the civil construction industry. Our main products are the rock screens, our bedding boxes, our concrete washout tubs, our tracking pads, which all serve, um, mostly civil construction, but also some of those products go into all sectors of construction.
32:20
But we're looking to expand our product lines to better serve those areas as well. We just launched a new product called the Snow Pusher uh, we're gonna offer for contractors that do snow plowing in the winter. So it's attachment for a skidsteer. and we're looking to launch some other products.
32:37
We got some other stuff in the works that we think will be good, um, and then focusing on our marketing strategy. That way we make sure that we can get our brand out there in front of everybody that needs to hear about us and might have a need for our products and. Uh, just continue growing, I think.
32:54
So we can get this thing running like a well lubricated machine. John and Connie: Oh, that's wonderful. Well, we will look forward to watching that growth. So your website is Bear, BEAR right, like the grizzly bear, uh, but ironworks.com Roggen Frick: Dot net. John and Connie: right?
33:14
Uh, that's right. I I, I see. I thank you. I knew there were, I hesitated there 'cause it's like, oh yeah. Dot net; bearironworks.net. Okay. And. Um, so you have e-commerce set, you have a store set up on there for people to, to at least see the products and, and buy the, some of the smaller ones.
33:32
And if they want custom, they can customize it and, and then they can call the company and order whatever they need Roggen Frick: Yep, John and Connie: as well. Roggen Frick: all of our standard product lines, um, on our website. You can just click and buy.
33:43
we have all the most popular configurations and everything that you need on there. Um, but o obviously, you know, uh, some people need something a little bit specific for what they're doing, and we're always willing to, help you find the solution that you need.
33:58
Um, and so we'd like to, if anybody that listens to your podcast needs any of our products, you know, we like to, we're a small business. We like to help small businesses as well, so we like to offer a discount, um, to anybody they can use code, celebrate. On our John and Connie: Cool.
34:14
Roggen Frick: 5% off of their entire order no matter how big or John and Connie: Thank you. Thank you. We'll put that in the show notes too and, and let everybody know. And, uh, we'll have all your contact information on there too. Roggen Frick: That
34:26
John and Connie: Is there a particular social media, uh, platform that you put more effort into that you'd like mentioned? Roggen Frick: Um, yeah, we're gonna be putting some more effort into LinkedIn this year, John and Connie: Cool. Okay. Roggen Frick: on Facebook, Instagram as well.
34:40
John and Connie: Okay. All right. So all three. Wonderful. Fabulous. Well done on that too, by the way. Yeah, that's, uh, amazing amount that takes effort and consistent effort and, um, so yeah, and it's not easy keeping up with all that. Mike Frick: And if you, if they John and Connie: I don't do it
34:57
Mike Frick: too, they, uh, we have links to our Facebook and YouTube,
35:00
Final advice for small and family business owners
35:02
John and Connie: on the website. Cool. Mike Frick: could click on there, watch our YouTube videos. About our John and Connie: You got some YouTube, right? That's right. Great. Is there any other words of wisdom you'd like to shout out to for listening audience or watching audience?
35:19
Roggen Frick: one of the themes I've been preaching is, uh, when it comes to problems, because problems arise all the time. Sometimes somebody causes the problem, sometimes the problem just arises from somewhere where you might not have any control.
35:34
But, um, something that I learned in the corporate world. Uh, I, I worked with really good project management teams and something that we always focused on was when there's a problem, most people sit there and they start trying to point fingers at whose fault it is. John and Connie: Hmm.
35:48
Roggen Frick: don't worry about that. Try to focus on getting the problem solved first. Get through it to the other side. That way your operations can keep moving forward. And once you're on the other side of it, then you can worry about, okay,
35:59
whose fault it is, because, know, maybe in that situation, maybe the person's whose fault it is came up with the solution and they owned that problem and they made it better. So you wanna focus on blaming it after the problem's dealt with after the result is, uh, seen. John and Connie: Nice.
36:18
So smart and yeah, and avoiding that. That way you're avoiding repetition. If you focus afterwards, uh, it's much easier to see the whole picture rather than just the initial panic. Roggen Frick: Right. Mm-hmm. John and Connie: Nice. Mike Frick: You can keep your calm the better off you are.
36:35
John and Connie: Yes. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Wonderful words of wisdom. Thank you so much for spending this time with us, gentlemen. Thank you. Mike Frick: You John and Connie: This was fun. Pleasure to meet you both. And, uh, like I said, we look forward to watching Bear Iron Works Grow. Yes,
36:49
Mike Frick: Visit, visit us again. Roggen Frick: yeah. John and Connie: we will. We look forward to it. Thank you.
21:04
it you you got to maintain it. You have definitely have to step in and maintain it, but it's not you are actively involved in it dayto-day. Yeah. No, this is great. I have multiple questions on the whole thing.
21:15
Hey everyone, it's Karly. If you're really resonating with what we're talking about and want to get clear on what truly drives you, what your core values are, head on over to my website in the tools and tip section, there is a
21:26
free values assessment. And this is a quick exercise that's going to help you to uncover what actually matters most with you so you can lead and live with more clarity, fulfillment, and momentum.
21:38
I love um because you're you're right. It's like if you are doing the day-to-day, all of a sudden you go from business owner to business operator, right? So putting in these um standard operating procedures and making sure
21:48
everything is running smoothly without you is just it is a top priority. So when you think about workplace culture like what what helps you guys create that workplace culture like do you have certain core values that you follow like
22:01
what does that look like in your company? Yeah, we really value uh safety is the number one and we also value honesty in our company as well. We like everybody to be open with it. We are open with our employees. Our employees are open with us. Um, and we're open with our
22:18
customers because we want to make sure that our customers are satisfied. And that's another value that we hold high at our company is uh customer satisfaction and quality because the customers are really what make the business happen, right? And so we've got this culture of be safe, have a nice
22:38
clean workspace, do things right, and if there's a problem, you can come to somebody and talk about it, and we're going to figure out how to fix it and get through it together. And the team dynamic from those aspects really help everybody feel like they're
22:57
in working together on it and that they're not just there for the paycheck. They're not just there for the job, but they're there as a team and they're working towards achieving something, which is, you know, making the products
23:09
for our customers and making sure that our customers are satisfied. And then our employees love hearing the feedback of um, you know, you guys got another fivestar review on Google. This is what the customer said. They're happy to they're happy with your work. They think
23:22
the welds are good and everything like that. And just making sure that they they know how much they're appreciated. That's amazing. Um, so one thing that you're doing to just keep them engaged in this culture, right, in these core
23:35
values is sharing the Google reviews, which I love. I think that's so important for every person in the company, um, whether it be the janitor to like the senior leadership team to actually hear stuff like this because
23:46
everyone wants to make an impact. And when they get to feel that, it's it's your right, it's like it inspires them. They want to do more, they want to do better. Yeah. Yeah. And something I like to do at the end of the year is I show I pull
23:58
up a map of the United States and I put a dot on every single product that's out there to just show them. I'm like, look, this is where all of your work has ended up all across the country. It's on islands in the Pacific and everybody that every one of these dots is a happy
24:16
customer. And you know, just being able to show them that and then when I go visit customers in the field and show them pictures of their product in Alaska or in Florida or in Pennsylvania or
24:28
wherever I'm going to visit a customer at and show them like your your product has made it all the way out here and it's doing its job. Yeah. So part of it is just making sure that it stays alive through all the
24:39
engagement that you're having with them and kind of sharing them in these little ways. Are there any more ways that you keep them engaged with the core values outside of the things that you shared? Uh the a way that we keep them engaged with safety because you know that's one
24:52
of the biggest challenges that I think um companies have is instilling safety because it's really easy to just be like you're doing this wrong. You're doing it wrong. You're not being safe enough. And just really um
25:05
reprimanding people for doing the wrong thing, but instead we encourage them for doing the right thing. And you don't want to you have to be careful with it because you don't want to create a culture where people are going to be lying about their injuries and they're
25:17
not going to report it or things like that. So, we built a culture of like, you know, we're going to go walk out in the shop and we're looking for seat belts on the forklift. We're looking for a face shield when they're grinding. We're looking for safety glasses. We're
25:29
looking for gloves. We're looking for those things that are, you know, it's not like that way you can still report an injury if you get an injury. That way it's not like encouraging them to hide it, but we're looking for those things.
25:42
And if they're all doing that, then they get put into like a lottery at the end of the month where there's prizes handed out. And so you could get the number one prize every month is you get a whole day of of paid day off.
25:55
That's cool. They probably get super stoked for that one. Yeah. And the minute that we started doing that, it really started helping our safety go up quite a bit. like we started having less uh incidents where people forgot to put on a seat belt
26:08
and people were running with their face masks and now everybody's like telling each other, hey, make sure you're wearing your seat belt, make sure you're wearing your safety masks and make sure you're wearing your gloves and things like that and it's really helped improve
26:19
that. So, you know, just some incentives I think are very positive because people like to be incentivized instead of reprimanded. Absolutely. I think everyone likes that. Even as adults, we prefer it, right? Our psychology. So, let me ask
26:37
you a question, too, because uh yeah, I talk about core values all the time. I love them. I think it's amazing to see companies who really are engaged in their core values and the results it has on their employees. So, we kind of got
26:48
to hear how you've been structuring it. We kind of got to hear what it looks like on a day-to-day basis, how you're sharing it, how you're maintaining it. What would you say having these core values within the company has had an
26:59
impact on? How has it really helped the company to thrive and what do you think your company would be without them? Without them, I mean, if you don't have a set of core values in your company, then you don't have you don't have like
27:13
a shared set of things or values that you stand behind, right? And I mean, a lot of companies might have core values whether they realize it or not, whether they've written down bullet point items and said these are our core values. Um, but really identifying what those are and
27:30
then driving them and helping, you know, incentivize them and bringing attention to those is something that is very important in your organization. I think that if we did not have that, I don't think that our safety would be as good.
27:44
I don't think our quality would be as good. I don't think our customer satisfaction would be as good. Um because you can tell that when like I mean if you're doing business with I mean we all have to do business with somebody you know our toilet breaks or
27:56
the air conditioning goes out or something like that you know you have to call somebody and get a hold of them. You can tell when a company doesn't have their core values and their things altogether because they're maybe they don't have good
28:09
customer service or they don't pick up the phone or the employee just doesn't sound very happy to be talking to you. And it's those things that are going to hurt your sales and hurt your business. And so you really have to be building a
28:21
good positive culture where people want to be there because if they want to be at work, they're going to portray that positivity onto your customer base and your customer base is going to go, I want to work with those people because
28:33
they seem like they have it together and they're not going to let me down. Because if nobody wants to work at that company, how do I know that they're going to make my product properly and deliver it on time and meet my
28:45
expectations? Yeah. No, that's perfectly said. You're definitely preaching to the choir. I say this all the time how important core values are and I just I really wanted to keep cementing it in people's heads by hearing the actual impact it makes on your business and if you didn't have
29:01
them like how it actually would be such a detriment cuz you're absolutely correct. It brings the whole team together and that is 100% felt on the customer side of things. And also it just makes your business like you as a business owner enjoy your business so
29:14
much more. Like to be able to show up and have a team to work with as opposed to just trying to run around like put out all these fires and manage all these people who really don't like working there. Um it really makes your job different. It makes your leadership's
29:27
job different. It's it's amazing. Like it's amazing what it can do. So thank you for sharing those dynamics. Yeah, it really is. and you know the journey along the way. You know I think we've rewritten our core value list. You
29:38
know I don't know how many times we've went through it but it's something that we've been doing early on in the company. You know we started out with a list like 20 values and you know we've gotten it like kind of confined down and even if it's not something we post all
29:51
over our website and brag about everywhere. It is something that I know what these core values are and it's something that I'm going to portray to my employees and it's something that I'm going to make sure that they're living
30:02
by as well. Yeah. I love that and I I think another thing that you had shared that I really want to reiterate as well is that every company has core values whether they realize it or not and it's just asking yourself those quality questions to pull
30:13
it out because your company's already demonstrating of very specifics that of core values you guys are living by and this just puts it all together connects the puzzle pieces gets everyone to understand it to a greater degree make
30:26
sure they know it make sure they're living by it they hold up to those standards when you hire you even hire by the core values you don't ever want someone who doesn't align with your values in the company. Yeah. That'll mess up your team,
30:38
right? Yeah. And you know, it's like and if you're not if you don't like at least sit down and evaluate what your core values are, you know, you might be surprised that your core values might actually be bad core values. You know,
30:49
if you're not critical of it and and identifying what you want them to be, then they're just going to be whatever they end up being. Yeah. Yeah. And then Yeah. Then you're stuck with those until you actually dive
31:00
in and shift it. Yes, that's a great point. And let me ask you as well because you were mentioning in the software and I love this one too is that you're tracking like it sounds like metrics. Are you doing KPIs for each
31:13
employee? How does that work? What are you tracking to make sure that you can oversee stuff from a broad perspective as opposed to just being in the grit? So when it comes to this is true for construction and manufacturing because you're building things. Uh production
31:32
times are very important. That's like one of the number one things that we're tracking because material costs I can't really control fluctuation of that. That's going to cost what it costs. But I do track it because I do need to be
31:43
able to change my pricing based on that. But production hours are something that I really look at because the way that we run the company does have influence of how long it takes to make something. There are ways that I can change the process to improve it. And so we track
31:60
our time by the operation. We're tracking how long does it take to cut this product? How long does it take to weld this product? How much time are we putting into quality control? There was a period there where there was we weren't having like major quality issues, but every once in a while, you
32:16
know, we'd send out a product and there was like a couple welds missed or something got shipped out wrong. You know, one time they even managed to load out the wrong color and it was like they switched up to customer orders and got
32:28
shipped to the wrong place. And so then, you know, we have to go deal with the customer and refund them or make a correction, things like that. And I was
32:36
tracking quality control time and how much they were spending on quality control. So, I go start looking through the records and I have 30 minutes built into every product to do a quality control check. And they were spending about five minutes or less. They clock into it, clock out, hit
32:48
complete, and go through. And so, I caught him and I was like, "Listen guys, we need to really make sure that we're doing a good job on quality. I don't care that you're spending your time doing it. I need you to because it costs me more when I have to go and fix
33:00
a product that's all the way across the country now." Yeah. So tracking all these different metrics and the production times are very important. At the end of the year, I sit down with all of the data and I sit through all of our the skew numbers
33:14
of each product and find out how long it takes on average for each product. um to make everything analyze the costs so I can make the pricing for next year as well as analyze is there ways that we can improve the process and is there ways that we can um that we can uh not
33:34
just improve the process but produce sorry I lost my train of thought now that's basically you're going through you're going through all the dynamics of why you're tracking it to make sure from
33:46
start to finish like everything Yeah. Yes. How we can improve the process, but also how can we set better goals? Because if we're, you know, if we're making the product now uh two hours under the goal time, you know, we're
33:59
making it six hours instead of eight, well then I'm going to start setting that down. Okay, the goal now is to hit it six hours. Can we beat that or at least meet that? Yeah. No, I think what's really helpful about what you shared, too, is all the details about the specific KPIs you're
34:11
setting. People tend to get really confused with KPIs and and do really broad general ones, but yours are great examples that they're there to reach very specific goals. And those very
34:23
specific goals, it's like these are the measurements that actually are required to ensure those goals are being met and those are the goals that are important to your company as opposed to just setting random KPIs and metrics. And I
34:36
mean, they don't really give you as much, but these are very specific to what you guys want. Yeah. you know, and you got to identify the KPIs that are important to you because there's all these KPI tools out there and they'll give you hundreds of
34:48
KPIs. You might not know what most of them do or most of them mean. You might know what a handful of them mean, but are they really going to tell you a story that's important? And when I'm going when I'm sitting down, I I sit
35:00
down for pretty much the entire month of November and analyze all of the data from the e-commerce store, from the manufacturing software, um from QuickBooks, from all the different data points that I have and start analyzing different things to see where can we improve.
35:17
Yeah. No, that's amazing. Um, it's funny because it reminds me when I first started coaching, the KPI that they told me to do was on my sales calls and how many were closed and what was my close rate and stuff. And I realized at a
35:28
certain point I don't even care about that. That wasn't my business model. I wanted to provide such great service that I could just have repeats and referrals. And if I wanted to market, I could market. And having random sales
35:40
calls all the time doesn't track that at all. But like tracking how many people repeat, how many refer, what are the top referers, like where is it coming from, why is it there? like that gave me the actual necessary data and the people who
35:51
aren't repeating, the people who don't refer, was I never hear from again. It's like going back and getting customer feedback surveys and understanding what the gap was. Was it actually something that I was lacking or was it just not a
36:03
match, you know? And it's Yeah. getting all that data that's important to you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, it's funny like you talking about calls and stuff. You know, I know that there's a lot of
36:14
companies out there. They measure your like success as like a call rep is like about like how much time you spend on the phone, not necessarily by how many sales you bring in or how many dollars revenue or
36:25
anything like that. It's about how much time you spend on the phone. And so I don't run, you know, a big call center that's trying to sell different things. I don't know if that's the most important metric, but
36:39
just make sure that you do know what your important metrics are for sure. And it's funny because um there's ones that I've spent very minimal time on and the you know, it didn't last very long, but there's
36:50
clients that I've really invested a lot of extra time in, but again, like the the repetition, the referrals I've gotten have been just it's just instrumental for my business. And so I couldn't I couldn't be more thankful.
37:03
And so it's like, do I really want to track how much time I'm spending with them? No, I get bonus time, man. I love you guys. Like, thank you so much. What else do you need? What else do you want? What else can I do? Tell me. Like, how else can I serve?
37:15
Yeah. Yeah. So, really, yeah. Understanding those metrics or we're just going out there copying people, not doing things that are valuable to us, our customers, and it's confusing. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, there's no cookie cutter model for a business. So just because a successful business is
37:33
tracking these metrics and this is what's important to them, you know, unless you have an identical business, it's probably, you know, it might not perfectly align. Yeah, absolutely. And let me ask you
37:44
too, because I know we're talking about core values within the company, within the people. What about like the values that are passed on to the customer? Like are there certain promises that you guys make to the customer that the employees are just basically paying attention to
37:57
on a regular basis? Yeah, one of the things that we try to do is we try we because construction is always we it's a joke in the industry. It's a a dollar short and a day late. You know, they're always behind budget or they're always over budget and behind schedule. It seems like, you know,
38:14
especially if you're driving through a road project, you can feel that. And it's it's it's a joke, but in a sense, it's true. I mean, that's a constant battle on a construction project of trying to keep that under control. So, when we get a lot of customers, you
38:26
know, they need this product yesterday. Yeah. Uh because something went wrong on the job, a change happened and now all of a sudden they need my product. So they need this now. So one of the things that we try to do is we try to keep our lead times down and we do that by one keeping
38:45
popular models in stock. That way there's ready to ship inventory. We can just ship it out the door and get it to them. Um, but the next thing that we do is because our manufacturing process is so lean and efficient that we can push
38:59
products through really fast, we can usually get a product out the door in two weeks or less. And so we're always tracking how much time we have because, you know, if we get a really big order,
39:10
that's definitely going to push us back to three weeks, maybe four weeks, depending on how big of an order that is. But we track that and when we tell a customer that we're going to have a product to you at this time, we really take pride into making sure that that
39:23
happens. Now, sometimes the ball gets dropped. Sometimes I can't get a semi-truck because there's not enough truckers out there on the road to cover loads. Um, you know, we're all limited by the challenges of the economy. But we
39:37
really try to do our best to make sure that we get the product to you on time and that it's going to be a quality product that's going to that's going to solve your problem. Yeah. No, I love that. And it it's also again just to reiterate just having
39:50
those processes and systems in place to ensure that these things can move quickly because when they're not in place, the bottlenecks just come up so much faster, so much harder. But when
40:01
there's just these like really standard operating procedures and everyone's following this method, like it just makes it easier to pump things out more quickly. Yes. And then having the the the main
40:13
products in stock is helpful because that stuff can just go out the door, you know, and then we're usually building the stock. Our main schedule is build it to stock. But then every once in a while, you know, we get an order something custom. Somebody wants something custom done or they need
40:27
something that's not in stock. Well, then that's just pushed to the front of the schedule in front of all the rest of the inventory that's getting made and then we can get that done a little bit faster. Yeah. No, it's amazing. It's funny
40:39
because uh it's this also really reminds me of the fashion industry. It's very similar. Everything's due like last week, last month. Like why am I just hearing about it now? But it was the same thing. Like if we hadn't had put
40:52
the strategies, the operations in standardizing things, like we just couldn't do it. And so the more we standardize things, the more people could come to us last minute and be like, I need this and I need the final
41:04
image and I need it to this person and so and so by this date and it's like we do it like we can do it. It's going to be a little crazy, but we can get it done. Um, so yeah, I think it's just reiterating again is just have as much
41:16
standardized as possible because then when those those little hiccups come through, guess what? Like you can manage them. You can figure it out. You can put the time and energy in there instead of all the standards like operating dynamics,
41:29
right? Yeah. I can focus my attention towards the the stuff that needs my attention, you know, and that's I'm even doing that same thing right now. I'm working on building out content creation and building out our YouTube
41:40
channel and you know trying to make videos to showcase our products. That way people know what they are and how they can help them out. And so I'm trying to come up with a standardized process of just making the videos. That way I can keep those coming out and
41:54
still be relevant in front of people. Totally. Totally. This is so valuable. I don't I just don't know what I would have done if I haven't done something on on the back end. Everyone's like, "How are you so consistent with your content?" And I'm like, I have a very
42:06
like I do. I have a standard operating procedure for my content so I can be consistent with it. Otherwise, everything falls through the cracks. It'll just fall through the cracks. Yeah, it does. And that's one of the downfalls I've had is I haven't been able to be
42:19
consistent enough with the content creation of the business. You know, we'll go through these periods where, okay, we're getting a lot of Facebook posts out, Instagram posts, LinkedIn posts, and things like that. Didn't really I always tried, like I
42:29
said earlier, I have the hardest time delegating out things that I'm good at. I'm good at making videos. But then I just kept pushing it, pushing it, pushing it, pushing it. Now I'm finally like, okay, I need to hire a video editor
42:40
and get somebody that can help me and build the process and start delegating the same way that I delegated the operations, but for the marketing side of the business. Hey everyone, it's Karly. So, if this conversation is really hitting home and
42:53
you want to get a real snapshot of what's working and what's not in your business, head on over to my website in the tools and tips section and you can have the business performance health check. In just about 15 minutes, you're
43:06
going to see where the friction is and where your next growth opportunity lies within your company. Yeah, 100%. And I'm curious once you delegate that to a greater degree, what are you bringing your time up for? like
43:19
what's the next step in the stage for you that you're wanting to invest more time in? The next step that we're doing is, you know, once we get the processes down of of content creation and marketing and a
43:30
process of launching new products, I'm going to be spending a lot of time with my dad of developing new products and new solutions for the industry because there's a lot like our products are very niche. Um, and what we've found is that
43:46
if you want these type of niche products, you need to go to a different vendor for every single one of them. So, we want to be this kind of like one-stop shop for all these kind of niche products or these replacement items or things that you need for your equipment and for excavation. And
44:04
there's a lot of different products out there that we can produce to do that as well as just making sure that, you know, we might even be looking towards getting other manufacturers that maybe they're not so good at selling their products,
44:15
but they're good at making their products or finding distributing things from a wholesaler um through our site and reselling things like that. So, just expanding our offerings is really what my goal is with the company.
44:28
Yeah, that's awesome. I think that the fact even you're giving some separate examples of how to do that, right? There's an opportunity for you to do the manufacturing, but again knowing maybe I'm not going to be the best at it, but
44:38
there's some people who have the best product that just suck at marketing it and sort of taking on that individual like as a manufacturer, which is also a great strategy, right? So, it's like just kind of checking in to see which
44:50
one works best because expansion can go through so many different levels. Yeah. I mean, once, you know, I start looking at the business, I'm like, well, we've got an e-commerce store. We're really good at shipping things around
45:01
the world now, and we're we can manufacture metal goods. Well, there's definitely I can put effort into any three of those parts of the business and grow it out more. There's opportunity in all three of those areas. Yeah. And it's expansion based on your unique strengths, which I love. So, it's
45:19
not like unrealistic expectations to dive into things and have crazy learning curves. You're like, "No, these are our strengths. Let's figure out how to like utilize them in this very specific way." Yep. And then how can how can it
45:30
complement what we're already doing is really the biggest thing. Yeah. No, that's very cool. I love that. I love that. And let me ask you as well is so you are the second generation founder. I know you talked about that a little bit in the beginning. So, what is
45:46
some of the most challenging part of the dynamic and how did you guys get to the other side of that of like the father-son dynamic? Totally. You know, I give all the credit to him on that because he realized that I have
46:01
ideas and that I have foresight for the company to be able to take it to another level that he couldn't see. And I know that a lot of dads will sit there and, you know, I'm the dad. I'm boss. I know what's right. You know, he
46:15
actually took a step back and he let me take the reigns and run it because I did the first time around. I started the company and proved it that it was a business. And then the second time around, um I have the degree now, which is something he didn't have. He just grew up the school of hard knocks,
46:35
made his way through a construction career and got successful with it, and knows a lot of hands-on skills and knows project management. But when it comes to product marketing and logistics and uh content creation, all these other aspects that you have to do as a
46:49
business, he let me run that. and um he listened to my ideas and I think that that was important um because we have a good relationship where we can go back and forth with each other and bounce ideas off of each other and support each other
47:06
in those ways instead of just one of us being in charge and the other one just running, you know, doing things that the other one says. Yeah. No, that's amazing. And I think this is also it's going towards the art of delegation and partnership, right? Like sometimes we think about delegation
47:23
and just having someone new, having an employee, an individual like that, but this is in partnership. And with partnership, um, we sometimes focus on the things that are similar and we only appreciate those things. But when we
47:34
really appreciate someone's differences, what makes them unique, all of a sudden we're understanding where their strengths are and then feeding that in such a way that it's like you're you are you're delegating that dynamic to them.
47:46
You're helping them grow there. You're pushing them to grow there. And that's like a true caring relationship, you know, when you actually understand someone to that degree and both challenge and support them to get it together and move forward in that unique
47:60
genius they have. Yeah. And we really, you know, and that's like we really helped like nurture each other in that way because, you know, he's really good at coming up with ideas. He's a really smart guy with coming up with the ideas of the
48:11
products. He's come up with all the ideas of the products. I'm really good at executing the products and getting them out on the street and making sure people know about them. And so that's where we can help
48:22
each other out a lot. And and you know, another thing to that family dynamic too, uh, is when we're not working, we don't talk about work. So like Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas dinner or just a weekend together that we're just relaxing, we just don't talk about work. We talk about other things and
48:46
really just try to not talk about bare iron works and what we're doing there and separate that family and business relationship. Yeah, I think that's a really helpful dynamic, too. Caveat, I actually work
48:58
with my husband. So there have been times when like right before bed we're laying in bed and he'll start talking about something I'm like not the time babe not the time like I'm about to pass out. I do not want my brain working at that level right now. Go to bed. So just
49:14
even having those conversations where we're like okay let's try not to talk about things after a certain period of time right because there is that realistic dynamic that you also want to have like still your normal relationship
49:26
still your normal life. Yes. And that's the it's a balancing act because you can't let one out hurt the other. Y can't let business hurt the family. Can't let family hurt the business. You have to try to keep them as separate as
49:38
possible so that you can be successful in both. Yeah. No, it is a different dynamic, but it is an inspiring one when you can definitely work with family and kind of see things pass on to generation to generation. I know it can be challenging
49:50
in certain dynamics, but seeing that happen is pretty cool like when it actually does. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think you got to be realistic. Like my wife and I, we've kind of come to the conclusion that we're too strong-headed to probably work
50:02
together, at least at this point, you know, if we wanted to do a company together. Maybe down the road we'll do a little bit better. But, uh, yeah, you know, we've You got to be realistic with it because you don't want to be
50:13
like, "Oh, yeah, no, we'll be fine. We'll get through it all." Even if we have differing ideas and things like that and we argue to the point that we have to come to an impass. But yeah, be realistic and go, "Okay,
50:25
you know what? Maybe maybe our relationship isn't good enough to have a business on top of it. Maybe it should just be a relationship. And relationships change, scenarios change, so it could change down the road. But
50:37
no, they do. Um, my husband and I are that way. By the way, we did not think about that before we got into a business. And that was something that we really had to learn how to navigate. And we really had to do a lot of personal development work on ourselves. Yeah.
50:49
To sort of shift that dynamic. Um because we both have that very we we both can be really hard-headed. We're both very strong. Um we both take a leadership role and having two individuals like that can really clash.
51:01
So yeah, it is true. You're accurate and we we did not understand that in the beginning. We understand that now, but it took some time to sort out. Yeah. Yeah. It just makes some more hurdles to jump over, but you know,
51:13
if you're willing to work with each other, you can get through it. Absolutely. Absolutely. And let me ask you a question as well, cuz what's something that you would love to share with another founder who still is
51:25
running 12 hours a day trying to hold it all together? What would you love to share with those individuals? I would say that if you're starting your business and it's early on, I would say that you need to have a good understanding of your finances so that you can make sound decisions. And then
51:42
once you have a good understanding of your finances, trying to find areas where you can spend money to hire the right people to fix the weaknesses and hire out those things that are drowning you. I love that. No, it's really beautiful advice because, you know, you can
52:00
you can only hire a $200,000 a year manager if you have $200,000 a year to spend. Same with a $50,000 year manager, right? You have to know how much money you had to spend to solve your problems. Yeah. It's absolutely true. Um, one of
52:13
my friends, she's in marketing and she gets hired from time to time by startup companies who can afford her but wind up giving up a percentage of the actual company, which is interesting. So, there's also a cost to some of these
52:26
other strategies cuz now she has stake in these companies and she doesn't have to stay if she doesn't want to, but she will hold stake in your company, which is quite fascinating. So, there's a cost to not having cash flow,
52:37
right? You know, and one of the ways that we navigated that challenge early on was uh time because money is time. It's just an exchange. People are giving up their time for the money that you give them. And so, one of the incentives that we
52:50
did to get our manager because we couldn't quite afford hiring a manager at the time was we gave them extra vacation days. Nice. More more paid time off than um you know, most companies would give somebody. And you know, that can be a draw for people. So, be creative with
53:07
how you're going to solve your problems. I love that. I love that. My top priority is usually not to give away parts of the company unless it really is a strategic advantage and then you go for it. But otherwise, you get creative in these other ways and as he said,
53:20
focus on your finances. Yes. Uh well, Broen, thank you so much. This has been so informative. I feel like we've gone over so many details, um, so much information for people and it's been quite inspiring and I would really love for you to share more about where people can find you and check out Bear
53:37
Iron Works so that they know where to go, which we'll also include in the show notes for you guys. Yeah, you can go ahead and go visit baron.com. That's our website and that's where all of our products are. Um, and you can contact me by reaching the
53:49
general line there and asking for me or you can find me on LinkedIn, Robinfrick. Awesome. And thank you again for today. This was quite inspiring. Yeah, thank you. I had a good conversation with you.
it you you got to maintain it. You have definitely have to step in and maintain it, but it's not you are actively involved in it dayto-day. Yeah. No, this is great. I have multiple questions on the whole thing.
21:15
Hey everyone, it's Karly. If you're really resonating with what we're talking about and want to get clear on what truly drives you, what your core values are, head on over to my website in the tools and tip section, there is a
21:26
free values assessment. And this is a quick exercise that's going to help you to uncover what actually matters most with you so you can lead and live with more clarity, fulfillment, and momentum.
21:38
I love um because you're you're right. It's like if you are doing the day-to-day, all of a sudden you go from business owner to business operator, right? So putting in these um standard operating procedures and making sure
21:48
everything is running smoothly without you is just it is a top priority. So when you think about workplace culture like what what helps you guys create that workplace culture like do you have certain core values that you follow like
22:01
what does that look like in your company? Yeah, we really value uh safety is the number one and we also value honesty in our company as well. We like everybody to be open with it. We are open with our employees. Our employees are open with us. Um, and we're open with our
22:18
customers because we want to make sure that our customers are satisfied. And that's another value that we hold high at our company is uh customer satisfaction and quality because the customers are really what make the business happen, right? And so we've got this culture of be safe, have a nice
22:38
clean workspace, do things right, and if there's a problem, you can come to somebody and talk about it, and we're going to figure out how to fix it and get through it together. And the team dynamic from those aspects really help everybody feel like they're
22:57
in working together on it and that they're not just there for the paycheck. They're not just there for the job, but they're there as a team and they're working towards achieving something, which is, you know, making the products
23:09
for our customers and making sure that our customers are satisfied. And then our employees love hearing the feedback of um, you know, you guys got another fivestar review on Google. This is what the customer said. They're happy to they're happy with your work. They think
23:22
the welds are good and everything like that. And just making sure that they they know how much they're appreciated. That's amazing. Um, so one thing that you're doing to just keep them engaged in this culture, right, in these core
23:35
values is sharing the Google reviews, which I love. I think that's so important for every person in the company, um, whether it be the janitor to like the senior leadership team to actually hear stuff like this because
23:46
everyone wants to make an impact. And when they get to feel that, it's it's your right, it's like it inspires them. They want to do more, they want to do better. Yeah. Yeah. And something I like to do at the end of the year is I show I pull
23:58
up a map of the United States and I put a dot on every single product that's out there to just show them. I'm like, look, this is where all of your work has ended up all across the country. It's on islands in the Pacific and everybody that every one of these dots is a happy
24:16
customer. And you know, just being able to show them that and then when I go visit customers in the field and show them pictures of their product in Alaska or in Florida or in Pennsylvania or
24:28
wherever I'm going to visit a customer at and show them like your your product has made it all the way out here and it's doing its job. Yeah. So part of it is just making sure that it stays alive through all the
24:39
engagement that you're having with them and kind of sharing them in these little ways. Are there any more ways that you keep them engaged with the core values outside of the things that you shared? Uh the a way that we keep them engaged with safety because you know that's one
24:52
of the biggest challenges that I think um companies have is instilling safety because it's really easy to just be like you're doing this wrong. You're doing it wrong. You're not being safe enough. And just really um
25:05
reprimanding people for doing the wrong thing, but instead we encourage them for doing the right thing. And you don't want to you have to be careful with it because you don't want to create a culture where people are going to be lying about their injuries and they're
25:17
not going to report it or things like that. So, we built a culture of like, you know, we're going to go walk out in the shop and we're looking for seat belts on the forklift. We're looking for a face shield when they're grinding. We're looking for safety glasses. We're
25:29
looking for gloves. We're looking for those things that are, you know, it's not like that way you can still report an injury if you get an injury. That way it's not like encouraging them to hide it, but we're looking for those things.
25:42
And if they're all doing that, then they get put into like a lottery at the end of the month where there's prizes handed out. And so you could get the number one prize every month is you get a whole day of of paid day off.
25:55
That's cool. They probably get super stoked for that one. Yeah. And the minute that we started doing that, it really started helping our safety go up quite a bit. like we started having less uh incidents where people forgot to put on a seat belt
26:08
and people were running with their face masks and now everybody's like telling each other, hey, make sure you're wearing your seat belt, make sure you're wearing your safety masks and make sure you're wearing your gloves and things like that and it's really helped improve
26:19
that. So, you know, just some incentives I think are very positive because people like to be incentivized instead of reprimanded. Absolutely. I think everyone likes that. Even as adults, we prefer it, right? Our psychology. So, let me ask
26:37
you a question, too, because uh yeah, I talk about core values all the time. I love them. I think it's amazing to see companies who really are engaged in their core values and the results it has on their employees. So, we kind of got
26:48
to hear how you've been structuring it. We kind of got to hear what it looks like on a day-to-day basis, how you're sharing it, how you're maintaining it. What would you say having these core values within the company has had an
26:59
impact on? How has it really helped the company to thrive and what do you think your company would be without them? Without them, I mean, if you don't have a set of core values in your company, then you don't have you don't have like
27:13
a shared set of things or values that you stand behind, right? And I mean, a lot of companies might have core values whether they realize it or not, whether they've written down bullet point items and said these are our core values. Um, but really identifying what those are and
27:30
then driving them and helping, you know, incentivize them and bringing attention to those is something that is very important in your organization. I think that if we did not have that, I don't think that our safety would be as good.
27:44
I don't think our quality would be as good. I don't think our customer satisfaction would be as good. Um because you can tell that when like I mean if you're doing business with I mean we all have to do business with somebody you know our toilet breaks or
27:56
the air conditioning goes out or something like that you know you have to call somebody and get a hold of them. You can tell when a company doesn't have their core values and their things altogether because they're maybe they don't have good
28:09
customer service or they don't pick up the phone or the employee just doesn't sound very happy to be talking to you. And it's those things that are going to hurt your sales and hurt your business. And so you really have to be building a
28:21
good positive culture where people want to be there because if they want to be at work, they're going to portray that positivity onto your customer base and your customer base is going to go, I want to work with those people because
28:33
they seem like they have it together and they're not going to let me down. Because if nobody wants to work at that company, how do I know that they're going to make my product properly and deliver it on time and meet my
28:45
expectations? Yeah. No, that's perfectly said. You're definitely preaching to the choir. I say this all the time how important core values are and I just I really wanted to keep cementing it in people's heads by hearing the actual impact it makes on your business and if you didn't have
29:01
them like how it actually would be such a detriment cuz you're absolutely correct. It brings the whole team together and that is 100% felt on the customer side of things. And also it just makes your business like you as a business owner enjoy your business so
29:14
much more. Like to be able to show up and have a team to work with as opposed to just trying to run around like put out all these fires and manage all these people who really don't like working there. Um it really makes your job different. It makes your leadership's
29:27
job different. It's it's amazing. Like it's amazing what it can do. So thank you for sharing those dynamics. Yeah, it really is. and you know the journey along the way. You know I think we've rewritten our core value list. You
29:38
know I don't know how many times we've went through it but it's something that we've been doing early on in the company. You know we started out with a list like 20 values and you know we've gotten it like kind of confined down and even if it's not something we post all
29:51
over our website and brag about everywhere. It is something that I know what these core values are and it's something that I'm going to portray to my employees and it's something that I'm going to make sure that they're living
30:02
by as well. Yeah. I love that and I I think another thing that you had shared that I really want to reiterate as well is that every company has core values whether they realize it or not and it's just asking yourself those quality questions to pull
30:13
it out because your company's already demonstrating of very specifics that of core values you guys are living by and this just puts it all together connects the puzzle pieces gets everyone to understand it to a greater degree make
30:26
sure they know it make sure they're living by it they hold up to those standards when you hire you even hire by the core values you don't ever want someone who doesn't align with your values in the company. Yeah. That'll mess up your team,
30:38
right? Yeah. And you know, it's like and if you're not if you don't like at least sit down and evaluate what your core values are, you know, you might be surprised that your core values might actually be bad core values. You know,
30:49
if you're not critical of it and and identifying what you want them to be, then they're just going to be whatever they end up being. Yeah. Yeah. And then Yeah. Then you're stuck with those until you actually dive
31:00
in and shift it. Yes, that's a great point. And let me ask you as well because you were mentioning in the software and I love this one too is that you're tracking like it sounds like metrics. Are you doing KPIs for each
31:13
employee? How does that work? What are you tracking to make sure that you can oversee stuff from a broad perspective as opposed to just being in the grit? So when it comes to this is true for construction and manufacturing because you're building things. Uh production
31:32
times are very important. That's like one of the number one things that we're tracking because material costs I can't really control fluctuation of that. That's going to cost what it costs. But I do track it because I do need to be
31:43
able to change my pricing based on that. But production hours are something that I really look at because the way that we run the company does have influence of how long it takes to make something. There are ways that I can change the process to improve it. And so we track
31:60
our time by the operation. We're tracking how long does it take to cut this product? How long does it take to weld this product? How much time are we putting into quality control? There was a period there where there was we weren't having like major quality issues, but every once in a while, you
32:16
know, we'd send out a product and there was like a couple welds missed or something got shipped out wrong. You know, one time they even managed to load out the wrong color and it was like they switched up to customer orders and got
32:28
shipped to the wrong place. And so then, you know, we have to go deal with the customer and refund them or make a correction, things like that. And I was
32:36
tracking quality control time and how much they were spending on quality control. So, I go start looking through the records and I have 30 minutes built into every product to do a quality control check. And they were spending about five minutes or less. They clock into it, clock out, hit
32:48
complete, and go through. And so, I caught him and I was like, "Listen guys, we need to really make sure that we're doing a good job on quality. I don't care that you're spending your time doing it. I need you to because it costs me more when I have to go and fix
33:00
a product that's all the way across the country now." Yeah. So tracking all these different metrics and the production times are very important. At the end of the year, I sit down with all of the data and I sit through all of our the skew numbers
33:14
of each product and find out how long it takes on average for each product. um to make everything analyze the costs so I can make the pricing for next year as well as analyze is there ways that we can improve the process and is there ways that we can um that we can uh not
33:34
just improve the process but produce sorry I lost my train of thought now that's basically you're going through you're going through all the dynamics of why you're tracking it to make sure from
33:46
start to finish like everything Yeah. Yes. How we can improve the process, but also how can we set better goals? Because if we're, you know, if we're making the product now uh two hours under the goal time, you know, we're
33:59
making it six hours instead of eight, well then I'm going to start setting that down. Okay, the goal now is to hit it six hours. Can we beat that or at least meet that? Yeah. No, I think what's really helpful about what you shared, too, is all the details about the specific KPIs you're
34:11
setting. People tend to get really confused with KPIs and and do really broad general ones, but yours are great examples that they're there to reach very specific goals. And those very
34:23
specific goals, it's like these are the measurements that actually are required to ensure those goals are being met and those are the goals that are important to your company as opposed to just setting random KPIs and metrics. And I
34:36
mean, they don't really give you as much, but these are very specific to what you guys want. Yeah. you know, and you got to identify the KPIs that are important to you because there's all these KPI tools out there and they'll give you hundreds of
34:48
KPIs. You might not know what most of them do or most of them mean. You might know what a handful of them mean, but are they really going to tell you a story that's important? And when I'm going when I'm sitting down, I I sit
35:00
down for pretty much the entire month of November and analyze all of the data from the e-commerce store, from the manufacturing software, um from QuickBooks, from all the different data points that I have and start analyzing different things to see where can we improve.
35:17
Yeah. No, that's amazing. Um, it's funny because it reminds me when I first started coaching, the KPI that they told me to do was on my sales calls and how many were closed and what was my close rate and stuff. And I realized at a
35:28
certain point I don't even care about that. That wasn't my business model. I wanted to provide such great service that I could just have repeats and referrals. And if I wanted to market, I could market. And having random sales
35:40
calls all the time doesn't track that at all. But like tracking how many people repeat, how many refer, what are the top referers, like where is it coming from, why is it there? like that gave me the actual necessary data and the people who
35:51
aren't repeating, the people who don't refer, was I never hear from again. It's like going back and getting customer feedback surveys and understanding what the gap was. Was it actually something that I was lacking or was it just not a
36:03
match, you know? And it's Yeah. getting all that data that's important to you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, it's funny like you talking about calls and stuff. You know, I know that there's a lot of
36:14
companies out there. They measure your like success as like a call rep is like about like how much time you spend on the phone, not necessarily by how many sales you bring in or how many dollars revenue or
36:25
anything like that. It's about how much time you spend on the phone. And so I don't run, you know, a big call center that's trying to sell different things. I don't know if that's the most important metric, but
36:39
just make sure that you do know what your important metrics are for sure. And it's funny because um there's ones that I've spent very minimal time on and the you know, it didn't last very long, but there's
36:50
clients that I've really invested a lot of extra time in, but again, like the the repetition, the referrals I've gotten have been just it's just instrumental for my business. And so I couldn't I couldn't be more thankful.
37:03
And so it's like, do I really want to track how much time I'm spending with them? No, I get bonus time, man. I love you guys. Like, thank you so much. What else do you need? What else do you want? What else can I do? Tell me. Like, how else can I serve?
37:15
Yeah. Yeah. So, really, yeah. Understanding those metrics or we're just going out there copying people, not doing things that are valuable to us, our customers, and it's confusing. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, there's no cookie cutter model for a business. So just because a successful business is
37:33
tracking these metrics and this is what's important to them, you know, unless you have an identical business, it's probably, you know, it might not perfectly align. Yeah, absolutely. And let me ask you
37:44
too, because I know we're talking about core values within the company, within the people. What about like the values that are passed on to the customer? Like are there certain promises that you guys make to the customer that the employees are just basically paying attention to
37:57
on a regular basis? Yeah, one of the things that we try to do is we try we because construction is always we it's a joke in the industry. It's a a dollar short and a day late. You know, they're always behind budget or they're always over budget and behind schedule. It seems like, you know,
38:14
especially if you're driving through a road project, you can feel that. And it's it's it's a joke, but in a sense, it's true. I mean, that's a constant battle on a construction project of trying to keep that under control. So, when we get a lot of customers, you
38:26
know, they need this product yesterday. Yeah. Uh because something went wrong on the job, a change happened and now all of a sudden they need my product. So they need this now. So one of the things that we try to do is we try to keep our lead times down and we do that by one keeping
38:45
popular models in stock. That way there's ready to ship inventory. We can just ship it out the door and get it to them. Um, but the next thing that we do is because our manufacturing process is so lean and efficient that we can push
38:59
products through really fast, we can usually get a product out the door in two weeks or less. And so we're always tracking how much time we have because, you know, if we get a really big order,
39:10
that's definitely going to push us back to three weeks, maybe four weeks, depending on how big of an order that is. But we track that and when we tell a customer that we're going to have a product to you at this time, we really take pride into making sure that that
39:23
happens. Now, sometimes the ball gets dropped. Sometimes I can't get a semi-truck because there's not enough truckers out there on the road to cover loads. Um, you know, we're all limited by the challenges of the economy. But we
39:37
really try to do our best to make sure that we get the product to you on time and that it's going to be a quality product that's going to that's going to solve your problem. Yeah. No, I love that. And it it's also again just to reiterate just having
39:50
those processes and systems in place to ensure that these things can move quickly because when they're not in place, the bottlenecks just come up so much faster, so much harder. But when
40:01
there's just these like really standard operating procedures and everyone's following this method, like it just makes it easier to pump things out more quickly. Yes. And then having the the the main
40:13
products in stock is helpful because that stuff can just go out the door, you know, and then we're usually building the stock. Our main schedule is build it to stock. But then every once in a while, you know, we get an order something custom. Somebody wants something custom done or they need
40:27
something that's not in stock. Well, then that's just pushed to the front of the schedule in front of all the rest of the inventory that's getting made and then we can get that done a little bit faster. Yeah. No, it's amazing. It's funny
40:39
because uh it's this also really reminds me of the fashion industry. It's very similar. Everything's due like last week, last month. Like why am I just hearing about it now? But it was the same thing. Like if we hadn't had put
40:52
the strategies, the operations in standardizing things, like we just couldn't do it. And so the more we standardize things, the more people could come to us last minute and be like, I need this and I need the final
41:04
image and I need it to this person and so and so by this date and it's like we do it like we can do it. It's going to be a little crazy, but we can get it done. Um, so yeah, I think it's just reiterating again is just have as much
41:16
standardized as possible because then when those those little hiccups come through, guess what? Like you can manage them. You can figure it out. You can put the time and energy in there instead of all the standards like operating dynamics,
41:29
right? Yeah. I can focus my attention towards the the stuff that needs my attention, you know, and that's I'm even doing that same thing right now. I'm working on building out content creation and building out our YouTube
41:40
channel and you know trying to make videos to showcase our products. That way people know what they are and how they can help them out. And so I'm trying to come up with a standardized process of just making the videos. That way I can keep those coming out and
41:54
still be relevant in front of people. Totally. Totally. This is so valuable. I don't I just don't know what I would have done if I haven't done something on on the back end. Everyone's like, "How are you so consistent with your content?" And I'm like, I have a very
42:06
like I do. I have a standard operating procedure for my content so I can be consistent with it. Otherwise, everything falls through the cracks. It'll just fall through the cracks. Yeah, it does. And that's one of the downfalls I've had is I haven't been able to be
42:19
consistent enough with the content creation of the business. You know, we'll go through these periods where, okay, we're getting a lot of Facebook posts out, Instagram posts, LinkedIn posts, and things like that. Didn't really I always tried, like I
42:29
said earlier, I have the hardest time delegating out things that I'm good at. I'm good at making videos. But then I just kept pushing it, pushing it, pushing it, pushing it. Now I'm finally like, okay, I need to hire a video editor
42:40
and get somebody that can help me and build the process and start delegating the same way that I delegated the operations, but for the marketing side of the business. Hey everyone, it's Karly. So, if this conversation is really hitting home and
42:53
you want to get a real snapshot of what's working and what's not in your business, head on over to my website in the tools and tips section and you can have the business performance health check. In just about 15 minutes, you're
43:06
going to see where the friction is and where your next growth opportunity lies within your company. Yeah, 100%. And I'm curious once you delegate that to a greater degree, what are you bringing your time up for? like
43:19
what's the next step in the stage for you that you're wanting to invest more time in? The next step that we're doing is, you know, once we get the processes down of of content creation and marketing and a
43:30
process of launching new products, I'm going to be spending a lot of time with my dad of developing new products and new solutions for the industry because there's a lot like our products are very niche. Um, and what we've found is that
43:46
if you want these type of niche products, you need to go to a different vendor for every single one of them. So, we want to be this kind of like one-stop shop for all these kind of niche products or these replacement items or things that you need for your equipment and for excavation. And
44:04
there's a lot of different products out there that we can produce to do that as well as just making sure that, you know, we might even be looking towards getting other manufacturers that maybe they're not so good at selling their products,
44:15
but they're good at making their products or finding distributing things from a wholesaler um through our site and reselling things like that. So, just expanding our offerings is really what my goal is with the company.
44:28
Yeah, that's awesome. I think that the fact even you're giving some separate examples of how to do that, right? There's an opportunity for you to do the manufacturing, but again knowing maybe I'm not going to be the best at it, but
44:38
there's some people who have the best product that just suck at marketing it and sort of taking on that individual like as a manufacturer, which is also a great strategy, right? So, it's like just kind of checking in to see which
44:50
one works best because expansion can go through so many different levels. Yeah. I mean, once, you know, I start looking at the business, I'm like, well, we've got an e-commerce store. We're really good at shipping things around
45:01
the world now, and we're we can manufacture metal goods. Well, there's definitely I can put effort into any three of those parts of the business and grow it out more. There's opportunity in all three of those areas. Yeah. And it's expansion based on your unique strengths, which I love. So, it's
45:19
not like unrealistic expectations to dive into things and have crazy learning curves. You're like, "No, these are our strengths. Let's figure out how to like utilize them in this very specific way." Yep. And then how can how can it
45:30
complement what we're already doing is really the biggest thing. Yeah. No, that's very cool. I love that. I love that. And let me ask you as well is so you are the second generation founder. I know you talked about that a little bit in the beginning. So, what is
45:46
some of the most challenging part of the dynamic and how did you guys get to the other side of that of like the father-son dynamic? Totally. You know, I give all the credit to him on that because he realized that I have
46:01
ideas and that I have foresight for the company to be able to take it to another level that he couldn't see. And I know that a lot of dads will sit there and, you know, I'm the dad. I'm boss. I know what's right. You know, he
46:15
actually took a step back and he let me take the reigns and run it because I did the first time around. I started the company and proved it that it was a business. And then the second time around, um I have the degree now, which is something he didn't have. He just grew up the school of hard knocks,
46:35
made his way through a construction career and got successful with it, and knows a lot of hands-on skills and knows project management. But when it comes to product marketing and logistics and uh content creation, all these other aspects that you have to do as a
46:49
business, he let me run that. and um he listened to my ideas and I think that that was important um because we have a good relationship where we can go back and forth with each other and bounce ideas off of each other and support each other
47:06
in those ways instead of just one of us being in charge and the other one just running, you know, doing things that the other one says. Yeah. No, that's amazing. And I think this is also it's going towards the art of delegation and partnership, right? Like sometimes we think about delegation
47:23
and just having someone new, having an employee, an individual like that, but this is in partnership. And with partnership, um, we sometimes focus on the things that are similar and we only appreciate those things. But when we
47:34
really appreciate someone's differences, what makes them unique, all of a sudden we're understanding where their strengths are and then feeding that in such a way that it's like you're you are you're delegating that dynamic to them.
47:46
You're helping them grow there. You're pushing them to grow there. And that's like a true caring relationship, you know, when you actually understand someone to that degree and both challenge and support them to get it together and move forward in that unique
47:60
genius they have. Yeah. And we really, you know, and that's like we really helped like nurture each other in that way because, you know, he's really good at coming up with ideas. He's a really smart guy with coming up with the ideas of the
48:11
products. He's come up with all the ideas of the products. I'm really good at executing the products and getting them out on the street and making sure people know about them. And so that's where we can help
48:22
each other out a lot. And and you know, another thing to that family dynamic too, uh, is when we're not working, we don't talk about work. So like Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas dinner or just a weekend together that we're just relaxing, we just don't talk about work. We talk about other things and
48:46
really just try to not talk about bare iron works and what we're doing there and separate that family and business relationship. Yeah, I think that's a really helpful dynamic, too. Caveat, I actually work
48:58
with my husband. So there have been times when like right before bed we're laying in bed and he'll start talking about something I'm like not the time babe not the time like I'm about to pass out. I do not want my brain working at that level right now. Go to bed. So just
49:14
even having those conversations where we're like okay let's try not to talk about things after a certain period of time right because there is that realistic dynamic that you also want to have like still your normal relationship
49:26
still your normal life. Yes. And that's the it's a balancing act because you can't let one out hurt the other. Y can't let business hurt the family. Can't let family hurt the business. You have to try to keep them as separate as
49:38
possible so that you can be successful in both. Yeah. No, it is a different dynamic, but it is an inspiring one when you can definitely work with family and kind of see things pass on to generation to generation. I know it can be challenging
49:50
in certain dynamics, but seeing that happen is pretty cool like when it actually does. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think you got to be realistic. Like my wife and I, we've kind of come to the conclusion that we're too strong-headed to probably work
50:02
together, at least at this point, you know, if we wanted to do a company together. Maybe down the road we'll do a little bit better. But, uh, yeah, you know, we've You got to be realistic with it because you don't want to be
50:13
like, "Oh, yeah, no, we'll be fine. We'll get through it all." Even if we have differing ideas and things like that and we argue to the point that we have to come to an impass. But yeah, be realistic and go, "Okay,
50:25
you know what? Maybe maybe our relationship isn't good enough to have a business on top of it. Maybe it should just be a relationship. And relationships change, scenarios change, so it could change down the road. But
50:37
no, they do. Um, my husband and I are that way. By the way, we did not think about that before we got into a business. And that was something that we really had to learn how to navigate. And we really had to do a lot of personal development work on ourselves. Yeah.
50:49
To sort of shift that dynamic. Um because we both have that very we we both can be really hard-headed. We're both very strong. Um we both take a leadership role and having two individuals like that can really clash.
51:01
So yeah, it is true. You're accurate and we we did not understand that in the beginning. We understand that now, but it took some time to sort out. Yeah. Yeah. It just makes some more hurdles to jump over, but you know,
51:13
if you're willing to work with each other, you can get through it. Absolutely. Absolutely. And let me ask you a question as well, cuz what's something that you would love to share with another founder who still is
51:25
running 12 hours a day trying to hold it all together? What would you love to share with those individuals? I would say that if you're starting your business and it's early on, I would say that you need to have a good understanding of your finances so that you can make sound decisions. And then
51:42
once you have a good understanding of your finances, trying to find areas where you can spend money to hire the right people to fix the weaknesses and hire out those things that are drowning you. I love that. No, it's really beautiful advice because, you know, you can
52:00
you can only hire a $200,000 a year manager if you have $200,000 a year to spend. Same with a $50,000 year manager, right? You have to know how much money you had to spend to solve your problems. Yeah. It's absolutely true. Um, one of
52:13
my friends, she's in marketing and she gets hired from time to time by startup companies who can afford her but wind up giving up a percentage of the actual company, which is interesting. So, there's also a cost to some of these
52:26
other strategies cuz now she has stake in these companies and she doesn't have to stay if she doesn't want to, but she will hold stake in your company, which is quite fascinating. So, there's a cost to not having cash flow,
52:37
right? You know, and one of the ways that we navigated that challenge early on was uh time because money is time. It's just an exchange. People are giving up their time for the money that you give them. And so, one of the incentives that we
52:50
did to get our manager because we couldn't quite afford hiring a manager at the time was we gave them extra vacation days. Nice. More more paid time off than um you know, most companies would give somebody. And you know, that can be a draw for people. So, be creative with
53:07
how you're going to solve your problems. I love that. I love that. My top priority is usually not to give away parts of the company unless it really is a strategic advantage and then you go for it. But otherwise, you get creative in these other ways and as he said,
53:20
focus on your finances. Yes. Uh well, Broen, thank you so much. This has been so informative. I feel like we've gone over so many details, um, so much information for people and it's been quite inspiring and I would really love for you to share more about where people can find you and check out Bear
53:37
Iron Works so that they know where to go, which we'll also include in the show notes for you guys. Yeah, you can go ahead and go visit baron.com. That's our website and that's where all of our products are. Um, and you can contact me by reaching the
53:49
general line there and asking for me or you can find me on LinkedIn, Robinfrick. Awesome. And thank you again for today. This was quite inspiring. Yeah, thank you. I had a good conversation with you.
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Published
January 7, 2026 at 10:00 PM GMT+8
Length
37 min -
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Rating
Explicit
